LGBTQ Arizonans gathered at the Arizona State Capitol this week, calling on the Republican-majority legislature to take action on proposed legislation which would add orientation and gender identity to current non-discrimination laws. The February 9 press conference saw Minority Leader Andres Cano heralding “a new day” in Arizona, where “any bill targeting our queer community will be vetoed”.
Cano’s legislation, House Bill 2703:
Cano has introduced House Bill 2703, which would add sexual orientation and gender identity to the list of characteristics Arizonans can’t be discriminated against in housing, employment and other public accommodations. Last month, Hobbs issued an executive order to that effect for state employees, which prompted immediate backlash and threats of a lawsuit from Republican lawmakers…
Despite its likely doomed fate, the measure inspired LGBTQ Arizonans to gather at the state Capitol on Feb. 9 in support and urge lawmakers to take action.
Arizona Mirror
Alphabetizing one’s soup cans would have been a far more productive use of time than this February 9 protest. Or quantifying one’s amount of navel lint. This protest may as well have taken place in a vacuum. Arizona Republicans already want drag shows classified with strip clubs and porn shops as “adult oriented businesses”, and have proposed legislation to strip funding from any organization that has a drag queen story hour.
“The reason we are singling out drag performances is (because) there are drag performances out there that are targeting children, and that needs to stop…The problem is that children are being targeted in many areas, and it is evil against good…and we’ve got to push back on evil.”
Anthony Kern (R-Glendale)
These are likely many of the same people who protested on January 22nd against homophobic legislation proposed in the Arizona State House. And of course, there’s always someone asking with incredulity “why” these hatemongers are acting the way they do. Regarding legislation targeting trans youth, Phoenix Pride spokesperson Jeremy Helfgot said:
“It begs the question: why are these lawmakers pursuing this when they know it has absolutely no chance of becoming law? And the answer is, it’s a fundraising tool…
“Transgender kids who are harming themselves are not doing so because of their transgender identity, they’re doing so because policies like this are telling them that the world we live in is a place that doesn’t want them, where they cannot be themselves.”
Jeremy Helfgot, Phoenix Pride spokesperson
Fundraising tool – from whom? Whose money is being sent in response? Homophobes’ money. Transphobes’ money. This appeal to the imagery of the “transgender kids harming themselves” only makes sense in the minds of those for whom transgender kids exist. The current rightwing hill-to-die-on is that transgender kids simply do not exist – who is harming themselves? Nonexistent entities? Why are you trying to ask a group of people to be empathetic towards that which they don’t believe exists?
Begging for equality and respect is not a strategy. “We can protest until death, they won’t listen!” as the punk band Conflict say. There is no better example of the classic definition of insanity here — protest after protest in front of the same people expecting different results.
They hate you, and they don’t believe that trans kids even exist.
Any “new day” will happen through our efforts, despite the homophobes’ best efforts, not in conjunction with them.
